Focus on Software

I am excited about Samba 2.0 and its new
web interface called swat.
However, there is still room for smaller, simpler tools that are
found in the Samba package or do not require a web browser. We will
look at a few of these tools today as well as a few graphical FTP
packages.

gtksamba:

http://www.open-systems.com/gtksamba.html

gtksamba is a nice program
that aids configuration and testing of the Samba smb.conf file. The
smb.conf file to edit can be specified, if it has a different name
or is located in a directory other than /etc. While not as detailed
as swat, it allows a user with proper permissions to look at and
edit smb.conf. This program appears just as powerful as swat, but
does not require a web browser. Some features planned for this
program are not yet implemented, such as the ability to configure
remote machines. For its help, gtksamba uses the Samba man pages.
However, it does not just present the man pages—it parses them to
make finding specific parameters easy. In all, gtksamba is a
well-thought-out program. It requires gtk 1.1.13, glib, Xext, X11,
libm and glibc.

TkSmb:

http://www.rt.mipt.ru/frtk/ivan/TkSmb/

A Tcl/Tk interface to the
smbclient program in Samba,
TkSmb allows browsing of the
“Network Neighborhood” in a box on your screen. Shown are the
neighborhood hosts, the shares on any particular host, the
different groups detected, and when a share is selected, the files
in the share. Files and directories are displayed in black and blue
respectively. One security aspect requires you enter your password
each time you change shares. A check box to “remember my
password” for the current session would be helpful. It requires
Tcl/Tk 8.0, expect 5.24+ and glibc 2.0.6.

smb2www:

http://us1.samba.org/samba/smb2www/

The smb2www package provides
a view of the “Network Neighborhood” through a web browser and
more closely resembles the Microsoft version. While nice,
installation is a little difficult; the script walks you through
questions, but could be a bit more friendly. Different hosts
(Windows 9x or NT) show up as different
icons—a nice touch. It requires a working web server (either
Apache or another), Perl and a web browser.

LinPopUp:

http://www.littleigloo.org/

Under Windows, users have the ability to send each other
messages if the messaging facility is turned on. The
LinPopUp utility allows Linux
Samba servers to exchange messages with Windows hosts or other
Samba servers. It requires a change to the smb.conf file by root
for messages to be received, but they can be sent without this
modification. This facility will also receive messages from the NT
server. It requires gtk 1.0.4+, Xext, X11, libm, Xmu, Xt, SM, ICE
and glibc.

tkchooser2:

http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~etgold/software/tkchooser2/

tkchooser2 is another
browsing tool that can be used with or without Samba. The default
configuration is for AppleTalk (Netatalk) to be installed; however,
this is easily changed. What this package lacks is a way to
configure everything without opening several files and making
changes. While the instructions are adequate, most newbies will not
feel comfortable reconfiguring the package. Once a package is
stable and ready for release, I would consider a configuration
script that walks installers through initial setup a must. It
requires Tcl/Tk 8.0.

gftp:

http://www.newwave.net/~masneyb/

gftp provides drag and drop
for X. It is a well-done package that will help anyone move files
around the Net. For doing file transfers, gftp is the easiest to
use graphical utility I have seen, and it allows multiple transfers
at one time (if you have the bandwidth for it). Partial transfers
can be resumed. Two windows below the two side-by-side directory
windows allow you to watch transfers and messages from the host. An
easy connection manager rounds out this utility. Utilities like
this make it easy for newbies and give them one more reason to
choose Linux. It requires libpthread, gtk 1.1, Xext, X11, lib and
glibc.

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